“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
―
Truman Capote

If people were like rain, I was like drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
―
John Green,
Looking for Alaska

“A house without books is like a room without windows.”
―
Horace Mann

Imagine my surprise when I went on line to look up analogical reasoning and got caught up in Stanford's Encylopedia of Philosophy. Our theme this month will have us exploring trails that are long and narrow, wide and short or meandering through the backwoods and back roads, getting lost..... or found as the case may be. *grin* Yes, I'm a fan of rabbit trails. So whether you go the nonfiction or fiction route, you'll have much to choose from.

When you think of analogies, what authors spring to mind? Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis, Tolkein or Bradbury? How about Rowling or our author flavor of the month, Isabel Allende.

I've had The House of the Spirits on my shelves for quite a while, but as is the case with many of my books, never got around to reading the story. It is the first, her debut novel. Since then, she has written over 20 novels, which have been translated into 35 languages and for which she has won many awards.

The astonishing debut of a gifted storyteller, The House of the Spirits
is both a symbolic family saga and the story of an unnamed Latin
American country's turbulent history. Isabel Allende constructs a
spirit-ridden world and fills it with colorful and all-too-human
inhabitants, including Esteban, the patriarch, a volatile and proud man
whose lust for land is legendary and who is haunted by tyrannical
passion for the wife he can never completely possess; Clara, the
matriarch, elusive and mysterious, who foretells family tragedy and
shapes the fortunes of the house and the Truebas; Blanca, their
daughter, soft-spoken yet rebellious, whose shocking love for the son of
her father’s foreman fuels Esteban’s everlasting contempt, even as it
produces the grandchild he adores; and Alba, the fruit of Blanca’s
forbidden love, a luminous beauty and a fiery and willful woman.

The Trueba family's passions, struggles, and secrets span three
generations and a century of violent change, culminating in a crisis
that brings the proud and tyrannical patriarch and his beloved
granddaughter to opposite sides of the barricades. Against a backdrop of
revolution and counterrevolution, Allende brings to life a family whose
private bonds of love and hatred are more complex and enduring than the
political allegiances that set them at odds.

Check out her website for more information about her and her books, plus watch her TED talks on how to live a passionate life, as well as her foundation supporting women and children.Join me in reading all things analogical and dive into one (or more) of Isabel Allende's magical stories.

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History of the Medieval World

Chapter 35 Gregory the Great pp 572 - 604

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